The Unicorn in the Garden

1953 "A henpecked husband sees a unicorn outside his window--or does he?"
6.6| 0h7m| en
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Based on James Thurber's short-story about a mild, henpecked man who, while preparing his breakfast, looks out the window and sees a unicorn eating flowers in the garden. He rushes upstairs to inform his domineering wife, and she accuses him of being crazy and threatens to have him put away. He persists that he did see a unicorn in the garden, and she phones for the authorities to come take him away. But when they arrive, with strait-jackets, they find the wife rambling and raving about seeing the unicorn, and promptly take her away.

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Columbia Pictures

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Reviews

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "The Unicorn in the Garden" is an animated short film from 1953, which had its 60th anniversary a couple years ago and tells us the story of a husband and his wife. And a unicorn! The man sees a unicorn in the garden and tells his wife. She says it's nonsense, but he is resilient and finally gets his wife to take a look. Of course, by then the unicorn is long gone if it ever existed at all. The wife is downright evil though and tries to get her husband sent to a psychiatric ward to get rid of him, but her plan is not working in the very end. The ending was pretty cruel, but also entertaining. I must still say it went against the first couple minutes. So there never was a unicorn and it was just the man's plan and the audience was fooled? I am not sure. But I don't even dare asking if there really was a unicorn in the garden? Because the answer obviously would be: Of course not! A unicorn is a mythical creature. Little fun cartoon. Go see it.
preppy-3 Animated short about a man who sees a unicorn eating flowers in his garden one morning. He tells his wife who refuses to believe him and tries to have him committed...but it doesn't end up that way.The animation is a mess and the voices of the man and his wife don't quite match the drawings but I liked it. It was only 7 minutes long, the narrator was good and there are a load of clever visual jokes throughout. Also the music perfectly fits the mood of the piece. The moral of the story is puzzling and doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Still, all in all, it's a fun short. I have nothing more to say but we do have to have 10 lines of text for every review so I had to write this sentence out:)
MartinHafer This story is based on a James Thurber story. It's told using very simple Thurber-style drawings.A man sees a unicorn in the garden. He tells his evil and cranky wife and she tells him to get lost. Again he sees the unicorn and wakes her once again. She tells him they are mythical creatures and tells him again to get lost. Then, she gets out of bed and calls a psychiatrist and the police to have him committed. When they arrive, they think she's crazy. The beleaguered husband, when asked about the animal, responds that "unicorns are mythical creatures" at which point they shove a straight jacket on her and take her away as the film ends.While this is a cute and moderately diverting cartoon, it definitely has a dark edge to it, as both husband and wife are pretty sinister people. Worth a look but younger kids will probably get nothing out of it.
Robert Reynolds The failure of AMPAS to nominate this cartoon for an Oscar is unbelievable! Granted, it was a good year for animated shorts and a good year particularly for UPA-Columbia, but this cartoon is simply delightful! Written by James Thurber and animated in Thurber's artistic style, it is his world come to life! If you like James Thurber, you'll love this cartoon, probably as much as I do! Highly recommended.Edit: Since I posted this particular comment, I discovered just why it wasn't nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Subject-it was never submitted to AMPAS for consideration, because Stephen Bosustow was, for some reason, not pleased with the end results. I think that it's a marvelous piece of work, but without submission for consideration, the Academy could not nominate the short. I've since watched it several times and it is still highly recommended.